I like this song rather than add it to one of the many threads here it is...

MAN OF THE EARTH

Every day as I go through the old shanty town, Where the sheds and allotments all stand, I see the old man of the land, With a rake or a spade in his hand, And he's there in all weather, in sunshine and rain. I hesitate as I go past, Is he happy or sad with his task? Oh, I haven't the time for to ask.

CHORUS: A man of the earth, a man of the soil, In his lonely allotment he labours and toils. He's not much to do since he turned sixty-five, So he's took to his garden to keep him alive. It's his only joy and his pride.

Forty years in the iron works broke his will, And his back and shoulders are round. There was no other work in the town, So they had him both fettered and bound. Then all of a sudden, he turned sixty-five, And the bosses said, „Thank you, my man," And they stuck a gold watch in his hand As behind him the door quickly slammed.

CHORUS

Every Saturday evening, he's down at the club, And he stands with his mates at the bar, Slowly sipping a solitary jar. Oh, a pension won't go very far. So he sells a few things to his neighbours and friends, A few of the things that he grows, But he has to watch how he goes, Or they'll stop all his pension, he knows.

CHORUS

Every day as I go through the old shanty town Where the sheds and allotments all stand I see the old man of the land With a rake or a spade in his hand, For I cannot linger. I must be gone, For I work in the iron works too. I started there five years ago. Only forty-five more years to do.

Talking from memory I think it was written by Bernie Parry. Vin Garbutt recorded it on Topic and Bernie then put out an album on a small independent label. I will supply more details when I get them, love john.

Wow, thanks for the reminder you guys. I used to sing this and forgot all about it. I believe it is in a previous thread but if you're having trouble searching here are the lyrics:

MAN OF THE EARTHBy Bernie Parry

Every day as I go through the old shanty town where the sheds and allotments all stand I see the old man of the land with a rake or a spade in his hand And he's there in all weather in sunshine and rain, I hesitate as I go past Is he happy or sad with his task, oh I haven't the time for to ask.

Chorus: A man of the earth, a man of the soil In his lonely allotment he labours and toils He's not much to do since he turned sixty five So he's took to his garden to keep him alive It's his only joy and his pride

Forty years in the iron works,broke his will and his back and shoulders are round There was no other work in the town so they had him both fettered and bound Then all of a sudden he turned sixty five and the bosses said "Thank you my man" And they stuck a gold watch in his hand as behind him the door quickly slammed

Chorus

Every Saturday evening he's down at the club and he stands with his mates at the bar Slowly sipping a solitary jar, oh a pension won't go very far. So he sells a few things to his neighbours and friends, a few of the things that he grows But he has to watch how he goes or they'll stop all his pension, he knows.

Chorus

Every day as I go through the old shanty town where the sheds and allotments all stand I see the old man of the land with a rake or a spade in his hand For I cannot linger, I must be gone, for I work in the iron works too I started there five years ago, only forty five more years to go,

Bernie was thinking of his father when he wrote it. I remember the first time I saw him, in a singaround, in Whitby I think. "People think Vin Garbutt wrote this song, but I did" he said - and sang Man of the Earth (Though Vin is pretty good about telling people who wrote the songs he sings in a live performance - but we don't always read the small print on the recordsm, and I'd assumed this was one of Vin own somgs till that moment.)

One thing that always strikes me is that this song is set in its time now, and that's a world away from today:

"I work in the iron works too I started there five years ago, only forty five more years to go"

Noone could write those lines now. The job for life and the ironworks and so forth are gone, for good or ill. It's get-by-how-you-may time now.

Thanks for the mention. Just one thing. The song was based, not on my father but my grandfather. The song is in the key of 'G'. Included in the song are the chords G, C, D, D7, Am, Amajor, A7. The main melodic hook happens in the change from Am to Amajor. I was 22 when I wrote 'Man Of The Earth', I'm now 52. The song is still going strong; it will probably outlast me despite the recent slagging in Stirrings magazine website. Oh, such small minded people with even smaller minds. No wonder I've retired.

I must have skimmed past this in 1998 .. perhaps because it was already a Lyrics Added thread. Did you ever get the the words to the Australian (coal-mining) song of the same name? I can't see it in the Digital Tradition - and the only threads that come up under this name relate to the English song Vin Garbutt sings.

I have the Larrikin recording at home, so I can dig them out for you if you still want them... maybe after I get this issue of Mulga Wire (BTW: #151 ... that's 25 years of publishing it ... started June 1978!) to bed.

It took me 3 years and five months to notice this thread ... and promise the Australian song ... so another month or so is hardly anything ... is it ... ? Anyway:

I imagine that the version you have heard is the one sung by Phyl Lobl and Tony Suttor of The Larrikins on their LP Man of the Earth (Larrikin 001, 1985) and published by Warren Fahey in his book EUREKA - The Songs That Made Australia, Omnibus Press, Sydney, 1985.

I have also included the version published in Singabout, vol. 1, no. 1, Autumn 1956 ... and included in my 1985 anthology Singabout - selected reprints, Bush Music Club, Sydney, 1985. This has an earlier take on the words - and a tune written by John Arcott. The original was in 'F' in the Singabout version ... but I find that many of the songs of that period need to be lowered a little for modern voices ... and I sing it best in 'C' ... so I have put it in 'D', as being suitable for the widest range of (less lugubrious) voices!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Larrikin Version

Man of the Earth,Words: Jock Graham (Kurri Kurri, NSW)Tune: Phyl Lobl

By profession and birth I'm a man of the earth, I burrow in it like a mole. I dig it and drill it, and blast it and fill it For that great commodity coal.

To some I'm a brave man, to others a knave man Who's putting the land in a hole; A strike and attack man, a black man and slack man Who plunders the country for coal.

It's narkin' art times to be blamed for their crimes, And placed in a villainous role - Invented by story, press-jury and tory; The profit-made agents of coal.

No story of men who are suffering pain; Of heroes who starve on the dole; Nought written or spoken of hearts that are broken: The widows and orphans of coal.

The court is the guage which determines my wage, The parson looks after my soul; My hands are my boss's, his gains are my losses; My body is bartered for coal.

The gaps in our lines: "Red roll of the mines", Show death has been takin' his toll, While snipers at maimed men and dead men and famed men Grow fat on the blood on the coal.

Yet through muck and mire - and lung-dust and fire, More clearly I'm seein' my goal: Of diggin' and drillin' and blastin' and fillin'; Supplyin' a socialised coal.

I thought I'd go the whole hog and add the lyrics as per the newer ABC Notation Standard, as per below.

In checking my notation I note for the first time that Alan's ABC program doesn't handle tied notes correctly. (No offence Alan, we all know that your program was a milestone for submitting tunes to this place - or some of us anyway). For ties which traverse barlines the hyphen should go BEFORE the barline rather than after it, as in Bob's example above.

X:1 T:Man Of The Earth - Jock Graham/Phyl Lobl M:3/4 Q:1/4=150 K:C A5 A|A B3 A2|A4 ^F ^F|A4 B A|A4 ^F2|A A3 A2|A2 G2 ^F2| w:By pro-fess-ion and birth I'm a man of the earth, I bur-row in it like a E6-|E4G2|GA3G2|GE3G2|GA3G2|GE3G2|G9/4A3E3/4| w:mole _ I dig it and drill it and blast it and fill it for that great co- G^C3E2|D6-|D4 D2|^C2 ^C2 D2|E2 ^C2 A,2|D2 D2 E2| w:mod-it-y coal _ To some I'm a brave man, to oth-ers a ^F2D2D2|^C^C3D2|E2G2B2|A6-|A4D2|G2G2B2|B2G2G2| w:knave man, who's put-ting the land in a hole _ A strike and a-ttack man, a ^F2^F2A2|A2^F2 ^F2|E2G3G|G^C3E2|D19/4|| w:black man and slack man, who plun-ders the count-ry for coal. W: W: It's narkin' art times to be blamed for their crimes, W: And placed in a villainous role - W: Invented by story, press-jury and tory; W: The profit-made agents of coal. W: W: No story of men who are suffering pain; W: Of heroes who starve on the dole; W: Nought written or spoken of hearts that are broken: W: The widows and orphans of coal. W: W: The court is the gauge which determines my wage, W: The parson looks after my soul; W: My hands are my boss's, his gains are my losses; W: My body is bartered for coal. W: W: The gaps in our lines: "Red roll of the mines", W: Show death has been takin' his toll, W: While snipers at maimed men and dead men and famed men W: Grow fat on the blood on the coal. W: W: Yet through muck and mire - and lung-dust and fire, W: More clearly I'm seein' my goal: W: Of diggin' and drillin' and blastin' and fillin'; W: Supplyin' a socialised coal.

Actually, the MIDItxt applet I'm using is (apparently) not the latest version. I need to figure out how to update! Then we might get a better rendition into ABC (not that I would notice ... I read dots because they are so much easier and more informative!).

BTW: If you want the dots, I have all the versions of the tune set in my music program ... and "printed" to PDF, which you can read - and print from - if you have Acrobat (or any other) PDF reader. As well, since Adobe is getting a bit bloody-minded about font substitution, I have also saved all these as 300 dpi TIFFs, which can print on anything and not get stuffed for fonts.

I'm so glad I found this sight. I heard a young man sing this song back in 1978 at a pub in Sheffield, England. I loved it. A friend of mine, who lived in Sheffield at the time, got the chords and lyrics for me and I started playing it for a time. A while back I pulled out that old yellowed lead sheet to play it again only to find the last two lines of verse two had been torn off the paper and I've been looking for the full lyrics since then. Thank you!